Perched high in their matchless settings, the three greatcliff dwellings of Navajo National Monument are the most striking remainsof ancient occupancy of the canyon country of northeastern Arizona.

From about A. D. 300 until about A. D.1300 there lived in the San Juan River drainagenear the “Four Corners” of Colorado,Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, Indians wenow call the Anasazi (a Navajo word whichmeans “The Ancient Ones”). Before A. D.300 the Anasazi probably existed as smallbands who wandered over the colorful plateaucountry hunting and trapping andgathering nuts and seeds; it is possible thatthey also did a little haphazard farming.

About A. D. 300 farming became more importantin their economy. With a better andmore dependable food supply population increased,people began to be more sedentary,crafts improved, and more permanent homeswere built. By A. D. 1100 large villages ofseveral hundred people each had been developed,as well as many smaller communities.

As time passed, three cultural centers—reallyprehistoric tribes—had differentiatedfrom each other: the Chaco Canyon group,in northwestern New Mexico; the MesaVerde, in southwestern Colorado; and theKayenta, in northeastern Arizona.

The three cliff dwellings of Navajo NationalMonument represent this third group.In these villages the culture of the KayentaAnasazi reached its peak and then deterioratedswiftly. A combination of circumstances,chief of which probably were soilerosion caused by poor agricultural practicesand disease brought about by lack of sanitation,resulted in a rapid loss of population.The remaining Anasazi abandoned the Kayentaregion shortly after A. D. 1300.

Betatakin, meaning “Hillside House,” isthe most accessible ruin in the monument.It is a well-preserved “apartment house,” 700years old. As determined by the tree-ringdating method, this ruin was occupied betweenthe years A. D. 1242 and approximatelyA. D. 1300.

Betatakin once had almost 150 rooms, ofwhich more than 50 were residential, 6 ceremonial(kivas), 13 open courts or patios,about 30 storage, and 2 grinding rooms. Thelast-mentioned are among the many roomswhich are still well-preserved.

Betatakin is built on the sloping floor of agreat cave, carved by stream meander andwind erosion in the side of a soft, red, sandstonecliff which forms the sheer and vertical500-foot north wall of a picturesque andbeautiful canyon. The cave roof projects farout over the village. Sand storms had piled2among the central rooms an accumulation inwhich oaks 4 inches in diameter and variedshrubbery had taken root.

In the canyon fronting Betatakin are tall,slender quaking aspen; boxelder,

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